Matthew 2: Wise Men

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0:00 Okay, for the rest of us, we are going to look at that same story about the Weizmann we're going to finish up here, this Christmas story, Epiphany. It's in Matthew's account of the Gospel, Matthew chapter 2, if you want to look there with me. It's an interesting part of the story here. Remember, when we're reading the Christmas story, we usually read

0:30 Luke's account, Luke chapter 2, because he goes kind of in depth on, kind of gives us a play-by-play of the birth of Jesus. Matthew is like way quicker, it's like at the end of chapter 1, she just has the baby. But now look in chapter 2, Matthew says, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, behold, Weizmann

1:01 from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews, where we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him? Let's see. Yeah, Weizmann from the east came to Jerusalem, they went to the capital city of Israel, found Herod, and said, where is he who is born king of the Jews, for we saw his star rise and we have come to worship

1:35 him, verse 3, and when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him, and assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born, and they told him in Bethlehem in Judea, for so it was written by the prophet and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the Weizmann

2:09 secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, go and search diligently for the child, and when you found him, bring the word back to me that I may worship him. And after listening to the king, they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was, and when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, and going into the

2:46 house, they saw the child with Mary and his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him, and then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh, and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. And now when they had departed behold an angel, the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you,

3:17 for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him, and he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken about the prophet out of Egypt I called my son, and then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and sent and killed all the children in Bethlehem, and in all that region,

3:52 who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men, and then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Rama weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children, she refused to be comforted, because they are no more. I read the whole thing because that we just like put the wise men in the manger because it's like a nice addition, and the gold and the frankincense and the moor is a

4:25 good little, it rounds out the nativity scene really nicely, but it's a kind of a crazy story, and Matthew captures it for us, and there's a couple of components I want to get for us, and the first one is this business about the magi coming to Herod. And so like I told the kids, the star appears, and it's, you know, they're this group of people from the east, right, they like watching the stars, and they notice one is different, and it's in the general area of

4:58 Jerusalem, and somehow they discern that a star like this would herald something new, a new king is coming, so they go to Jerusalem and they ask the king of the Jews, where's the new king of the Jews, right, and Herod doesn't know, right, he didn't notice the star, I guess, right, so it's not like the star was like unmistakable, I suppose, maybe you had to know what you were looking for in order to see the star, it's not like it was like hovering like an airplane or a drone,

5:36 whatever they are, right, over the things, it's not like it was like that, Herod, the star had been there, and so he called the wise men aside and said, hey, how long that star been up there, when did it start? And that's how he gets the two-year cycle, once he doesn't hear back from the wise men, he's like, I don't need another king of Jerusalem, Jerusalem Marty has a king, let's kill all the boys that are two years old and younger, oh,

6:10 I remember the first time someone told me Jesus didn't have any peers when he was growing up, I was like, yeah, he's the only son of God, she's like, no, there's no boys his age in Jerusalem area, they all got killed, isn't that weird to think about? I mean, there'd be some, because they maybe had moved in or whatever, but like wiped out a two-year swath of boys

6:40 in the whole region. I mean, Herod gets news about the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and his response is to kill two years worth of boys, the king of the Jews, with the advisors who know the prophecy about Bethlehem sitting right next to him. I'm sure they knew that he did it, right? I mean, everybody knew he did it. I mean, brutal. I mean, Herod is so focused

7:25 on what he's got going on, that not only does he miss the star who that draws a caravan of people on a two-year journey, he doesn't see that, not only that, but when they come and tell him, hey, one has been born, and he goes to his advisors and is like, where's the prophecy about the one to be born? And they tell him, he still misses it. What he's still got in his mind is, I've got things I'd like to get done, forget what else is going on, get it out of the way. What I've got

8:00 going on is more important than anything else. He's like got the tunnel vision for what's happening in his life, his goals, his agenda, his scheme for the next couple of years, right? I mean, how long does he really have left to be king in the scope of things? And in that moment, we'll call him 30. Maybe he's got 30 more years if he's going to live a long time. He's got, and then the rest

8:33 of forever. He gets a moment where a caravan of people track a star across countries, where his own advisors read the fulfillment of the prophecy. He's standing at the moment, and he can't see what God is doing because he's so fascinated by what he's doing. I'm saying. Here is a little bit more brutal than you and I. We are not in danger, probably, of killing

9:04 a nation's worth of two-year-old boys. But we do have some important things we're working on. Yeah? We got some plans that we need to get ironed out. It's a new year, new beginning. I've got new goals that need to be achieved. I've got legacies that need to be secured. I've got futures that need to be planned for. I've got a lot of things going on. I mean, I do.

9:42 They occupy me a lot from planning the work to planning the vacation. I got my own world here. And that's nothing wrong with it. Except for, I can't believe the king of the Jews and the advisors who knew the prophecies missed Jesus. But they did. And the first thing for us in

10:16 the story of the wise men is a legitimate warning. The advisors for Herod knew the Bible way better than me and you. I guarantee it. And they missed it. They had the wise men, the wise men. We don't know if there were three. One of the kids said that and they're right. We don't know how many there were. We always assume there's three because they mentioned three gifts. So there must have been three wise men. But look, if they took a two-year journey, there's a whole caravan. There

10:51 are not three of them marching across the desert on camels following. It's a whole situation. They walked right up and missed it. I don't want to miss it. Okay, here's the next thing I want you to think about with the story of the Magi. The wise men. The Greek word that Matthew uses is Magi. That's why sometimes they're called Magi. It's just a transliteration from the Greek word.

11:25 And it's like a similar word where a magician comes from. Right? And it's not used very much in the New Testament, which is why sometimes they don't translate it. Sometimes they translate it wise men. Sometimes they just transliterate it in some copies that you'll have and they'll just say Magi. If you look it up, one of the only other places that the word Magi is used is in the Septuagint. So like, you know, around the time as the church is expanding across

12:04 the Roman Empire, they start to make Greek translations of the Hebrew Old Testament. So some of these is called the Septuagint. It's the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. It's called the Septuagint. And some of our copies of the Septuagint are actually older than Hebrew copies. Like if I'm talking about actual physical pages. So if we want to find actual old manuscripts, we have Greek translations that are older than a lot of the Hebrew texts

12:35 that we have. Right? There's one Hebrew text that's old, the Maserets, that's like 10 or 11. Septuagint. So we have some that are older than that. So sometimes if you want to go, what were they, how were they thinking about the Old Testament a really long time ago, you'll look at the Septuagint and go, how did they translate the Hebrew into Greek? And there's one place in the Old Testament where they use the word Magi in the Septuagint. And it's a story. I don't want to read the whole thing. I'm just going to tell you the story.

13:07 You know the dude Daniel? Yes. Daniel is in the court for Nebuchadnezzar. Remember? When Nebuchadnezzar conquers Israel, he takes the best of the best out of Israel and brings them to the court to make them Babylonians, full-on Babylonians. And Daniel's one of them. And Daniel ends up, because he's like, can speak about the area where Israel is, becomes like an advisor for Nebuchadnezzar, the guy running the empire that's conquered all the known world. And at one

13:41 point, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that he can't figure out what's going on. He's like, call my wise men. Call my Magi. Right? And it's translated in the ESV with a bunch of words. The Magi is, they use several. Chaldean, magician, sorcerer, fortune teller, wise person. Okay? And so all these wise people, but not Daniel, come to Nebuchadnezzar. This is in Daniel chapter 9. And he's like, look, this dream is important. I'm being very clear. You're my wise man. That's your job. If

14:13 you can't do your job, you're done. I'm killing you. He gives him the dream. And they are like kind of like asking to give him the dream again. And Nebuchadnezzar is like, I told you very plainly. You're clearly buying for time. This is in Daniel chapter 9. And they're like, they give him interpretations like you're wrong. That's not it at all. And he's going to kill all the wise men. And his advisor comes out to Daniel's like, Nebuchadnezzar said, we got to kill all the wise men. Daniel's like, oh jeez, don't do that. Give me one night. Daniel was not in the group. Daniel

14:45 prays to the Lord. Hey Lord, give me the interpretation of the dream. So this dude doesn't kill all these crazy wise men, all these Magi, these sorcerers. And Daniel has to, he sleeps, goes asleep, gets the interpretation for an Nebuchadnezzar, goes to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel does what all the sorcerers and the fortune tellers and the people can't do. Daniel in the book of Daniel is lifted up as a hero, right? Because all these other people from all these other nations who were supposed to be wise and fortune tellers couldn't figure it out. But Daniel, the Israelite did. And he gets to be

15:19 Nebuchadnezzar's right hand man. And then he is like in charge of all the capital cities. And this is what people think Matthew is trying to do when he shows, see the Magi are fortune tellers, sorcerers, magicians and wise men from foreign countries. They don't have the scriptures. They don't have a relationship with God. Daniel is very careful when he interprets for Nebuchadnezzar.

15:53 Nebuchadnezzar is like you're a genius. He's like no I'm not, my God is fantastic. And told me the whole thing. And so the Magi are these like silly foreigners who don't have a relationship to the God who don't know the scriptures, who have to look into the stars to see what's going on. And Matthew, when Matthew writes predominantly to the Israelites, his gospel, he is trying to demonstrate to the Israelites the faithful those silly Magi looking up at the stars figured out

16:30 that Jesus was here. And all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't figure out what was going on. Herod and all his advisors, they had the text and they didn't know. When the Israelites read Matthew's gospel for the first time, it would be like a slap in the face. Like Matthew, are you telling me that those guys came over? They discerned it from the stars and figured it out. And our own people missed it. Yes, Matthew said. That's what I'm saying to you.

17:08 And then look at this is why I tried to get it to the kids. I'm now I'm back in Matthew chapter two. And they go and after listening to the king, they went on their own way and behold the star they had seen. So a lot of people figure, you know, the age bracket meaning it took them a long time and also that they're not in Bethlehem because the advisors say go to Bethlehem when they leave Herod. But then when they leave Herod, it says the star appeared and led them to where they

17:39 were going to go. The star wouldn't need to appear if they knew they needed to go to Bethlehem. They would have just gone to Bethlehem. And so a lot of people figure that by now Mary and Joseph have like finished the birth in Bethlehem, walked past the temple, made the sacrifices, met with Simeon and Anna, made their way back up to Nazareth. Now they're back home in Nazareth. And so when they leave Jerusalem, the star appears and says, don't go to Bethlehem, go up over here. Right? And so then they get there and then it says that they went inside. Right? And now where was the

18:11 manger? Maybe it was inside, but probably not. Right? It was like in this like outdoor kind of shed area. And so when they go inside, they go into Mary and Joseph's home where they're living. And so they're probably not at the nativity. Right? I mean, it makes a good, it rounds it out nice. But they're probably not there. But they go, they persist. Right? And when they saw the star, they rejoiced. They're all excited because it had kind of disappeared. And then it came back,

18:44 verse 11. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down in worshiped him. This is important. It's one of the things, there are several points with John the Baptist and with the angels where when people see him, they want to worship him and they won't let him. Remember? So like

19:20 the angels will say, stand up and don't be afraid. And John the Baptist will say, don't worship me. It's not me. There's one coming who stands on him not fit to untie. Right? And when Moses goes to meet with burning bush, he's like, dude, take off your feet. This place is holy ground. When Jesus comes in at the triumphal entry and people are worshiping him, that's what pisses off the Pharisees. They're like, hey, these people are calling you son of David and they're worshiping you. Tell them to knock it off. This is what you don't do. People don't receive worship because it is

19:54 reserved for the divine. It's blasphemy. It's saying you're divine to receive worship. Right? And so you don't do it. Even angels don't do it. And baby Jesus does. And Mary doesn't stop him and Joseph doesn't stop him and the star doesn't zap him. Right? Like they come and worship him. I wrote on my little notes. This is a quick excursus just for fun

20:29 because this is what I've been thinking about. Are these magi from the east in? Are they in the camp? Are they one of us? I would bet money those magi have not once sacrificed in Jerusalem. No sacrifices. Right?

21:00 They're from the east. Maybe though I seriously doubt it, they know how many commandments there are but I really don't think so. Certainly they don't have all the commandments memorized. Certainly they haven't kept them for heaven's sake. When we were starting, I was just, Mike and I were looking up how long we've been in this building.

21:30 We can't decide. It's either eight or nine years. So September the cross of Orlando was 14 years old. This coming September it will be 15. When we were getting started I had read this book about like church and it talked about how church are trying to create a group of people who feel like a tribe or a family or people who make a commitment to each other and often churches want to have a way

22:02 to understand who's in and who's out, who's part of the church and who's not. Just a couple weeks ago I had someone come up and say, hey what does it look like for us to how do we join this place? We want to be one of the people here and it's important for us to look around and go, yes, these are my people. We're in it together and a church normally would have what's called a bounded set. So you draw a line, imagine if I were drawing a line on a board, there's a circle, all the dots inside the circle are in, all the dots outside the circle are out. And this is Israel,

22:36 right? Circumcised, law keepers, sacrificed makers, if you cross the line you're in. You're in. If you're outside the line, whatever that is, what would the line be for Israel? You're uncircumcised, you don't keep the laws, you don't make the sacrifices, you're out, you can't get in. There's another type of set that you might make for a church that's called a centered set.

23:06 There's still a line that you look for but it doesn't determine who's in and who's out. The centered set says in the middle there's a thing that you're shooting for. And the folks that are in the group are the ones that are moving towards that center. So you might be right next to the center, you might know the law and the prophets. You might keep all the sacrifices and be moving away. If so, you're not in. You might be way out here, have no

23:36 knowledge of the law and the prophets, keeping none of the sacrifices but moving towards the center. Good news for you, you're in. As I started thinking about that and I think about the silly Magi from the East and Herod and his advisors, right? And I remember the parable that Jesus told about the end when the ones who come to him who have performed miracles and said we did all these things in your name and Jesus will look at them and say, get away from me, I never

24:11 knew you. And then I was thinking about the story of Matthew, the dude who wrote this. He's the only one to include the story of the Magi and you may remember you may not in Matthew chapter 9 he tells the story of when Jesus called him to be a disciple. In Matthew chapter 9 he says, as he passed on from there he saw a man called Matthew sitting at a tax booth and he said

24:45 to him, follow me and he rose and followed him. We've talked a lot about tax collectors in the Roman and Jewish world. Verse 10, and as Jesus reclined at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this they said to the disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it he said, those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick.

25:18 Go and learn what this means Jesus said to them, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous but the sinners. Jesus is quoting from Hosea and they would know that if they knew the prophets and in Hosea, God is, Hosea is a prophet speaking for God on behalf of God to the people and God is telling them, they've already been exiled. He says, I don't care about your sacrifices. I care about do you love the people around you. I desire mercy, love not sacrifice.

25:55 It's not that he doesn't like the sacrifices. He says, I don't care if you keep the sacrifices perfectly. If you have it, if you're not moving towards the center, the Magi, the story of the Magi is good news for me and you. Because I don't know the law and the prophets as well as I'd like to.

26:25 And I certainly don't keep them as well as I ought to. But the story of Matthew the tax collector and the three to three hundred Magi that came from the east and got to worship Jesus. Herod never did. The Magi got to worship Jesus. That story means that if I am interested

27:04 in Jesus of Nazareth, then I belong. If I would like to move towards the one who gives his life in solidarity and self-sacrifice for people who are uninterested and do not care. If I would like to move in towards one who demonstrates an act of love that changes the history of the world and find that sort of love inside of me. If I'd like to be a person of love, solidarity,

27:38 and sacrifice in the world, then I belong. And I can join the silly, stargazing Magi from the east and worship Jesus. I hope that you are able to do that this season. Recognize that the rules are not bad, but they don't put you in. Jesus puts you in. Are you pointing towards him?

28:13 This year are we moving towards love and mercy in the world? Then we belong. Did I pray already? Let's pray. Hey Lord, thank you for the story of the wise man, the Magi from the east. Teach us in what way we might be like the Magi. And worship you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.